My college son visited his NJ friends family. In 2012 they voted for Obama and thought Obamacare was good till reality hit. The friends father almost lost his good union health insurance, his friends mother lost hers as the place she worked at cut her hours to 29. The friends sister just lost her job because the place she worked at want to keep the number of workers below 50. They are pissed and angry at Obama, and probably will sit out of the elections in 2014. They are not ready to vote GOP but will boycott Dems, they basically do not trust politicians. IMHO many Dem blue collar will sit out of the election in 2014. It will help the GOP in short run, but in long run not help because these blue collar voters are available if the right Dem candidate comes along. Biggest challenge to GOP is to win these Dems over. Stop catering to corporations and Wall Street will be a good start. Supporting unabash globalism and free trade without weighing its degree of social disruption against its benefits would be a good place to start. If free trade and NAFTA is sooo good for America, why is the middle class shrinking and incomes stagnated for 10+ years before 2008 financial implosion, while Wall Street and CEO got richer and richer?

The GOP Establishment will never turn their backs on Wall Street and the “free trade” crowd. The GOP Establishment wants to be liked, and they figure that if the press doesn’t like them, then at least the mandarins occupying corporate jets and boardrooms will like them and take them grouse hunting at some corporate ranch in the west. The GOP Establishment thinks just the same as the hard lefties in the DNC, they just want to do it to us more slowly.

And the people thinking that Ted Cruz is going to actually do something about it... lemme see, a lawyer with a Harvard background. Yea, I’ll believe he really sides with the common man on this when I see him really do something.

Young people are beginning to discover, much to their dismay, that they were beyond stupid in 2008, and even more stupid in 2012. When I talk to some of these stupid young people, I’ve decided to no longer sugar-coat the issues any more. When I listen to their tales of woe and grief, I just arch my eyebrows and say “Well, you voted for this outcome, so I can’t understand your complaints. You asked for this, you got this, so...?”

They look at me as tho I’m stupid. “What do you mean, I voted for this?”

“Well, have you read the actual analysis of what’s in Obamacare?”

“No.”

“Well, there you go. This is all coming as a surprise to you because you voted for Obama and the Democrats, and you got them. Good and hard. You’re just too stupid, too lazy, (or both) to read the bill - either before or after it passed - to figure out that that entire ‘Affordable Care Act’ is one huge transfer of wealth, from you youngsters to old people.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re going to be paying far more for your health insurance than if you went into the pre-Obamacare market to buy the same sort of plan. The excess money you’ll be paying will be going towards making old people’s insurance costs go down, especially the cost of insuring old women. You voted for it, so you must support this idea.”

“!!!!!???? WTF?!”

“Oh, and you expected companies to just lay back and take the increased costs. The Democrats (for whom you voted) thought that companies would just implement this instead of moving to part-time labor. That was stupid too. 75%+ of the jobs being created now are part-time jobs. So much for predicting what corporate management would actually do.”

“But those companies are making so much money!”

“Yep, they’re making soooo much money that they’re re-hiring people after the end of the 2008 recession slower than after any recession post-WWII. They’re giving warnings on revenue. They’re increasing their earnings while the top line is mostly flat by cutting expenses - by doing things like moving people to part-time status to cut down spending on health insurance. Yep, they’re positively rolling in money. That’s why you didn’t have a job when you graduated in 2010, and that’s why you don’t have a job today. But don’t worry, Obamacare says that your parents can add you to their policy until you’re 26! That’s only, what, two years away now?”

“F... you.”

“Yep, nice talking to you, Scooter! You voted for this, you deserve it, so enjoy sleeping in your mom’s basement.”